Posted on 01/11/2014 8:08:33 PM PST by Benito Cereno
It happened again yesterday. I was attending one of those hip, contemporary churches — and almost no one sang. Worshippers stood obediently as the band rocked out, the smoke machine belched and lights flashed. Lyrics were projected on the screen, but almost no one sang them. A few women were trying, but I saw only one male (other than the worship leader) making the attempt.
(Excerpt) Read more at patheos.com ...
I can't sing the words - I'm typically fighting back the tears pretty much as soon as this song starts...
What really aggravates me is when they take an old hymn and either change the tune or the tempo. I’ve spent 60 years singing it one way and am barely able to carry a tune then. When they change it I am hopelessly lost and don’t even try to match whatever they are doing.
I assume some young hotshot does it so they can copyright the “new arrangement” and make a buck selling sheet music to churches.
Write your own songs and leave the classic words and tunes alone!
Thankfully, we don’t have to contend with light shows and smoke machines... otherwise I’d be pondering this verse...”And making a whip of cords, he drove them all out of the temple,”
Oh Lord, forgive us all for both unkind attitudes and stupidity in choosing the music for the worship service.
I don,t like a band in the Church, only an organ.
I don't sing if the volume isn't loud enough to cover up my terrible singing voice! People like me who cannot carry a tune if you put a handle on it just don't want to be heard. After all, the Bible says to make a joyful noise, not noise that'll have those standing around you covering their ears. ;-)
I recommend 80 to 90 dB (depending on the makeup of the congregation) for worship where congregational singing is desired.
I'm not a professional, been working the sound boards for longer than I care to remember though and 80-90db sounds about right - depending on the size of the room. Our church is big enough that 80-90db coming out of the mains in the front of the church is about 40-50'ish db in the back. Been saying we need more speakers towards the mid and rear of the church to level out the sound. Maybe someday...
I did not listen because its after 1.00 in the morning, may be alright at a hoedown or something but i hate bands in church.
I do not think entertainment is the object.
megachurches are not churches.
men sing at the real churches i attend.
Well, the Scripture does say, “Make a joyful noise...”. ;o)
Amos 5
23 Take thou away from me the noise of thy songs; for I will not hear the melody of thy viols.
I think that is why the Church of Christ does not use instruments.
Most churches I know of have multiple services where the type of worship you prefer is offered. Just choose the one you like, problem solved.
Good for him...I hope he is successful in his efforts.
I refuse to sing the banal, vapid, milquetoast garbage (but I repeat myself) that they attempt to pass off as liturgical music sung in 99% of Catholic parishes these days. I have to constantly concern myself with whether the songs are actually heretical (as many are)...and so therefore have just made the decision not to sing in church at all, ever. If the quality of the stuff put out by OCP actually improves (place an interdict on Haugen, Haas, and the rest of the St Louis Jesuit style of noise), I may review that decision.
Give me a singing of “How Great Thou Art” over what you had heard anytime.
I had seen on the front cover of the one year misseletter a beautiful Eastern Christian style icon of Christ on the Cross. That new Archbishop, God Bless him, did a good job in chosing.
Also towards the end of the Psalms you have a number of instruments used, including string instruments for worship.
Fortunately our church has two services. The early service features the choir, the orchestra and real hymns. Second service is the contemporary service with the praise team and nearly unsingable “songs”.
Comedian and former pastor Dennis Swanburg does an hilarious routine on the difference between a hymn and a praise chorus.
I think the lack of singing can be due to a number of things that can grieve the Spirit:
1. The preaching is not that which works to convict souls of sin, of righteousness and judgment, as we see in Acts, thus resulting in conversions - and an outward manifestation of that inward work:
He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord. (Psalms 40:2-3)
2. New songs are constantly introduced, and or those which are never song enough so that the congregation has learned them well.
3. The singing is interspersed with announcements, taking prayer requests, etc., so that as soon as the congregation begins to get in the spirit of singing they have to switch gears. Some of the best worship i have known was in a street mission with a pastor and his guitar, who just closed his eyes and sang familiar (which become familiar by enough repetition) worshipful spiritual (not hard rock) songs straight thru for about 45 minutes.
4. The music done more like a performance than a communal worship. The focus is often on a band that is high and lifted up.
5. The music too loud and rockish, and or superficial. After leaving the RCC, in which the priest would exhort us, “sing like Protestants” (to little avail, unlike the charismatic groups) I spent a number of years in a fund. Baptist church, which sang well, though problem #3 hindered it.
And those old time hymns! I still have an old baptist hymnal and know many, and i have said that if you had to save 3 books it would be the Bible, a hymnal - and your address book!
But the #1 problem is a worldliness, grieving the Spirit ourselves, not exalting the Lord in our hearts, and thus a lack of a heart to sing as we should, which i too often am guilty of.
“Smoke machines and flashing lights”...
...sounds like baa’l worship to me.
I just remembered what is often a bigger problem: That of us singing lyrics that may make one a liar if it is not true. Is Jesus all that we desire, etc., or of those singing it, at all times? And oftentimes we have lyrics written by modern emotional gushers who i think have little understanding of what they are claiming of themselves.
But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. (Matthew 12:36)
Now let may all who have the Spirit sing,
O worship the King, all glorious above,
O gratefully sing His power and His love;
Our Shield and Defender, the Ancient of Days,
Pavilioned in splendor, and girded with praise.
O tell of His might, O sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space,
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm....
Frail children of dust, and feeble as frail,
In Thee do we trust, nor find Thee to fail;
Thy mercies how tender, how firm to the end,
Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend. - http://cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/w/owtking.htm
And even if you can sing this is true!
It’s the failure to embrace tradition and write music that harkens back to an earlier time. All the new music is bad. When you look at a hymnal, you will see that all the best hymns and (the best Christmas carols) are from the 18th and 19th Century.
And flashing lights. No excuse for that but a faulty electrical connection.
That's why candles are so nice.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.